Mendelssohn, Moses(1729–1786) Moses Mendelssohn, the greatest Jewish philosopher in the eighteenth century, was born in Dessau, the son of a poor Jewish copyist of sacred scrolls. His first studies were devoted to the Bible, the Talmud, and...

MENDELSSOHN, MOSES (1729–1786), German-Jewish philosopher and public figure of the Enlightenment period. Born in Dessau, the son of a poor Torah scribe, Mendelssohn received a traditional education that, rather exceptionally, included the study...

(born Sept. 26, 1729, Dessau, Anhalt—died Jan. 4, 1786, Berlin, Prussia) German Jewish philosopher and scholar. The son of an impoverished scribe, he began his career as a tutor but eventually won fame for his philosophical writings, which would...

(RaMbeMan) (1729–1786) Philosopher. Mendelssohn dedicated his life to improving the civic status of the *Jews and providing a philosophical justification for the Jewish religion. His debate with the Christian clergyman John Lavater was widely...

Moses Mendelssohn (Dessau, September 6, 1729 – January 4, 1786 in Berlin) was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah, (the Jewish enlightenment) is indebted. For some he was the third Moses (the other...